Now kicked into gear, Meridian's engine is showing no sign of stopping.

Matt Baranchak struck out 11 while tossing a five-hit shutout and Meridian collected 14 hits in defeating Saxonburg, 12-0, in the Butler County American Legion Baseball Tournament championship game Saturday night at Pullman Park.

Meridian won all four of its games in the double-elimination tournament and has won eight of its last nine games overall.

"My goal this year was to finish around .500," Meridian manager Butch Master said. "But this team has really turned the corner. They grew up in a hurry."

Bobby Swartwout is the lone returning starter from last year's Meridian team that won the BCAL regular season title, only to lose to East Butler in the league's best-of-three championship series.

Meridian faces regular season champion Center Township in this year's championship series, beginning tonight at Pullman Park.

"We're playing our best ball of the year at the right time," Master said.

Baranchak, 16, threw 90 pitches — 62 for strikes — in tossing the shutout. It was the right-hander's third shutout of the season. He has struck out as many as 15 in a game this year.

"I was getting a lot of ground balls and our infield was doing the job," Baranchak said. "Getting the lead right away makes a big difference, too.

"All I wanted to do was throw strikes once we got way ahead."

That didn't take long. Meridian struck for three runs in the first inning with Ben Berresford's RBI triple to right being the big blow. The team added two more runs in the second, Berresford getting a RBI single and Swartwout adding a sacrifice fly.

Meridian scored in every inning. Seven different players had RBI and eight players scored runs.

"The way they were hitting the ball, we couldn't stay in the game," Saxonburg manager Ed Beacom said. "They swung the bat extremely well, up and down their lineup.

"I thought we'd win at least one game tonight. Scoring runs consistently has been a problem for us all year."

Saxonburg got one runner to third base all night. Garrett Shaw tripled with two outs in the fourth, but Baranchak struck out Nate Travis to end the inning.

Cody Beacom doubled to lead off the Saxonburg sixth. Baranchak responded by striking out the side.

"Matt was in complete command all night," Master said. "He has such a presence on the mound and he's become a leader of this team. He's definitely our ace."

Baranchak was a member of the Butler Township team that reached the Little League World Series regional four years ago.

"This was one of my biggest games since then," he said. "But we've played a lot of big games lately."

Meridian was the fourth-seeded team in the BCAL tournament. Saxonburg was seeded fifth. Meridian defeated Saxonburg 7-2 to begin the tourney.

"They came all the way back to make the finals," Master said of Saxonburg. "They should be proud."

Beacom agreed.

"We have a young team and I'm encouraged by what I saw in this tournament," he said.

Saxonburg 000 000 0 — 0 5 2Meridian 321 114 x — 12 14 1W: Matt Baranchak 7 IP (11K, 2BB).

L: Cody Beacom 2 IP (0K, 1BB).

Saxonburg (12-9): Mark Keck 1B, Cody Beacom 2B, Garrett Shaw 3B, Jake Smith 1B, Ryan Letzelter 1B

Meridan (13-7): Jace Lyons 2-1B 2-R RBI, Ben Berresford 3B 1B 2-RBI 2-R, Bobby Swartwout 2-1B 2-R 2-RBI, Matt Baranchak 2-1B RBI, Grant Foley 2-1B 2-R, Tommy Chrybrznski 1B 2-RBI, Matt Dowdy RBI, Scott Peskowitz 1B, Nick Legacy 2-1B 2-RBI

Monday: League Championship Series, Game 1-Meridian vs. Center Township, 8:15 p.m., Pullman Park